Smith Brothers: Scaling with Confidence Using RouteSmart
– 4 Min Read
For more than a century, Smith Brothers has been delivering fresh dairy and grocery products with a personal touch. As one of the largest regional home delivery providers in the Pacific Northwest, the company has modernized a century-old model through operational discipline, scalable growth, and intelligent route optimization powered by RouteSmart. With RouteSmart’s support, Smith Brothers navigated the unprecedented challenges of the COVID-era retail delivery boom — doubling its product catalog, expanding into new markets, and laying the foundation for long-term automated route planning.
Managing a Pandemic Surge with Precision
Prior to 2020, Smith Brothers served about 52,000 customers in the Seattle region, operating a traditional weekly and bi-weekly delivery model. The logistics team relied on RouteSmart to manage route structures, balance workloads, and maintain efficiency across a growing fleet. Then the pandemic hit, and demand skyrocketed. Overnight, Smith Brothers began receiving 300 to 500 new delivery requests per day. The company faced multiple challenges: protecting delivery day consistency for loyal customers, managing limited fleet capacity amid supply chain delays, and launching new delivery operations in the Portland market.
Overflow Routes Keep Deliveries on Time
To preserve reliability for existing customers, the logistics team deployed overflow routes powered by RouteSmart. Five sprinter vans were added to absorb new customer volume, allowing core delivery routes to remain untouched. By blending overflow route planning with precise route balancing, Smith Brothers ensured that growth never came at the expense of service quality. This same focus on precision extended to address data, where improved geocoding accuracy reduced manual corrections and accelerated route planning — contributing to a 50% boost in geocoding accuracy and a 99.7% address match rate.
Redesigning Shifts for Peak Efficiency
As volume stabilized, Smith Brothers reevaluated its operations to maintain sustainability. The company introduced a 4×10 work
schedule, extending driver shifts from six to eight hours and staggering start times at midnight, 1 a.m., and 2 a.m. The result
was a leaner, more efficient fleet: 15 trucks were eliminated while maintaining coverage across 67 routes.
This shift-driven optimization also improved delivery timing, with more than 60% of daily orders completed before 7 a.m. —
reducing traffic exposure and improving consistency for customers.
Full Speed Ahead: Automation on the Horizon
Looking ahead, Smith Brothers is preparing for fully automated, high-accuracy route planning built on APIs, validated
address data, and intelligent planning systems. This automation will allow new customers to see their delivery day
immediately at signup, reducing manual planning time and improving the onboarding experience while enabling real-time
route assignments that keep every delivery right on time.
Operational Excellence, Quantified
– 18,000 new customers added (from 52K to 70K total)
– 8 hours per shift spent on deliveries instead of 6, making better use of their time and boosting productivity without
adding hours to the day
“We started 5,000 customers in one weekend… and no one noticed a difference. That’s how well it worked.”
— James Kostoroski, Director of Logistics, Smith Brothers
